02 Jul Fostering Open Innovation inside companies
From the point of view of companies, successful implementation of Open Innovation requires balancing many aspects such as the internal resistance and the objectives to be achieved. In a previous post I talked about facilitators, but Open Innovation also requires a change in the companies’ organizational culture towards a more decentralized approach; a supportive business system, a knowledge management, and, of course, a strategy.
Some negative attitudes usually present in corporate culture and what must be overcome before opening to work and collaborate with new partners. They are:
The “Not Sold Here”. The “Not Invented Here”
Moreover, in a chapter of the book A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing, Braden Kelley proposes a series of key questions to answer before developing an Open Innovation strategy consistent with the interests of a company.
They are based in answering: Why?, When?, What?, Who?, When?, How?
In his article, Kelley also lists the departments within the company that have to be involved in the Open Innovation strategy. They are the following:
Public Relations: It has to broadcast efforts.
Marketing: To target and communicate with the audience of the company in addition to evaluating new market opportunities for ideas.
R&D: These teams evaluate outside inputs, set collaboration channels with external sources, and complete and combine partial solutions.
Finance: Measure and assist with market projections.
Operations: Evaluate proposed solutions for new products or services
Human Resources: Guarantee to flexibility within the company’s chosen innovation programs in addition to facilitate the submission of ideas to those programs.
Legal: To forge agreements with collaborators by protecting the IP.
The presentation below reflects the ideas discussed in the book by Kelly.